KOLKATA (miningweekly.com) - An inter-Ministerial committee of the Indian government has turned down a proposal that would see coal reject-based power plants offered washery rejects as feedstock, or supplied with run-of-mine (RoM) coal for blending purposes, on an assured basis.

The committee rejected the proposal on the grounds that the quantity of rejects available from major Coal India Limited (CIL) was insufficient to undertake a commitment to supply coal reject-based power plants.

Moreover, given the current shortage of coal availability, committed supplies of RoM coal for blending could also not be offered by CIL, the committee noted in its recommendations.

The committee suggested greater facilitation by CIL in the setting up of coal reject-based power plants close to washeries to eliminate the current necessity of transporting the rejects over great distances to power plant locations.

On the availability of rejects from CIL washeries, the committee noted an increase to about 1.27-million tonnes in 2012/13, up from 2.01-million tonnes in 2011/12, making it impossible to ensure linked supplies. However, with the coal miner proposing to set up new washeries, the supply of rejects was forecast to increase to 1.83-million tonnes by 2017, when the issue of linked supplies to reject-based power plants could be revisited.

According to Central Mine Planning and Development Institute Limited (CMPDIL), an arm of CIL, which was represented in the committee, fluidized bed combustion (FBC) boilers were being operated with coal rejects with gross calorific value (GCV) of 1 800 kcal/kg, which did not require blending of rejects with RoM coal. CMPDIL suggested that new FBC power plants requiring blending should be discouraged and boiler designs upgraded to accept specified ash content of rejects and improve efficiencies.

According to the proposal submitted for linked reject and RoM coal supplies, the Power Ministry was seeking to have some 22% of total feedstock material for the power plants made up of of RoM coal, which would be acquired through a supply agreement between CIL and the power plants.

This was based on the assumption that GCV of rejects was 1 500 kcal/kg while that of `F’-grade coal for blending was 3 800 kcal/kg.